Broadband telecommunication service for providing a personalized service capability to a mobile terminal at a remote environment

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of a system and method of providing broadband telecommunication services over a packet-switched network enable enhanced personalization. A mobile terminal is registered in a first remote environment, where the mobile terminal has a home environment and a home service capability. The telecommunication services are provided to the mobile terminal in the first remote environment in accordance with the home service capability.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/163,501, filed Jun. 7, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,696,102 B2, which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present invention is related to the U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/163,500, filed on Jun. 7, 2002 of Albert Chow et al., entitled“Providing Mobility in a Distributed End-to-End Packet/Cell/FrameNetwork.”

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to broadbandtelecommunication services. More particularly, embodiments relate tomethods and systems of providing broadband telecommunications servicesover packet switched networks that enable mobile terminals to maintainpersonalized service.

DISCUSSION

Telecommunications services are critical to a wide variety of industriesand daily activities, and have long been integral to the functioning ofsociety. For example it is well documented that voice, data andmultimedia applications have all proven to be useful in one circumstanceor another. Indeed, there is a rapidly increasing demand to integratethese various types of applications into a seamless fabric oftelecommunication services. While the trend toward integratedtelecommunication services is quite desirable to the consumer, a numberof challenges remain.

From a telecommunication standpoint, the integration of the above andother applications has been facilitated by the evolution fromtraditional analog networks to broadband networks. Broadband networksuse digital technology to make more efficient use of the transmissioncapacity of the physical architecture being used. For example, broadbandarchitectures based on cable, hybrid fiber coaxial cable (HFC) and thedigital subscriber line family of technologies (xDSL) have enabledleased line transmission rates in excess of 1.544 Mbs (i.e., T1+). Thus,higher transmission rates have provided an opportunity to increase thenumber and quality of telecommunication services available to the enduser. It should be noted, however, that conventional approaches tomanaging these services need to be improved. For example, the servicecriteria associated with integrated telecommunication applicationsenabled by broadband networks can be too complicated for traditionalcircuit switch approaches to establishing links. Establishingtelecommunication links is particularly important when dealing withmobile terminals such as laptop, personal digital assistants (PDA's),cellular phones, etc. Unfortunately, circuit switch-facilitated dialtone and numbering schemes such as directory number (DN), E.164 cannotsupport the sophisticated user-to-network interaction required tofulfill and communicate all of the service criteria. For example,criteria such as service and feature selections, maintenance of personaladdress books and directories, profiles and databases, and servicepreferences are all aspects of an integrated broadband service thatmight be customized or identified when a mobile terminal establishes alink. Thus, the simplicity of the traditional telephone keypad cannotfulfill these needs.

There is, therefore, a need to make use of multi-module user-interfacessuch as speech/voice recognition to enable the consumer to interact withthe network in a more human/natural, and sophisticated manner. Inparticular, in dealing with a mobile terminal, conventional approachesare significantly limited with regard to service capability. Forexample, if a mobile terminal is registered in a remote environmentunder conventional approaches, the telecommunications service must beprovided to the mobile terminal in accordance with the servicecapability of the remote environment. As a result, a subscriber having aterminal with an associated home service capability (such as enhancedvideo capability) might be forced to communicate in accordance with anentry-level service such as 64K bps video. There is therefore a need toprovide a mobile terminal with personalized telecommunications servicecapability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention provide a system andmethod of providing a broadband telecommunication service over apacket-switched network. The method and system provide for registering amobile terminal in a first remote environment, where the mobile terminalhas a home environment and a home service capability. Thetelecommunication service is provided to the mobile terminal in thefirst remote environment in accordance with the home service capability.By enabling the mobile terminal to receive service in accordance withthe home service capability, as opposed to the remote environmentservice capability, an improved level of personalization can beachieved.

In other exemplary embodiments, a system and method of registering amobile terminal in a remote environment involves receiving aregistration message from an access agent of the remote environment. Themethod and system provide for verifying that the registration messagewas initiated by the mobile terminal. Profile information associatedwith the mobile terminal is sent to the access agent, where the profileinformation includes a home service capability. Further in accordancewith exemplary embodiments, a computer readable storage medium storing aset of instructions capable of being executed by a processor implementsthe various principles described herein.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are merely exemplary of theinvention, and are intended to provide an overview or framework forunderstanding the nature and character of the invention as it isclaimed. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitutepart of this specification. The drawings illustrate various features andembodiments of the invention, and together with the description serve toexplain the principles and operation of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various advantages of the embodiments of the present invention willbecome apparent to one skilled in the art by reading the followingspecification and appended claims, and by referencing the followingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an example of a networking architecture inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram of an example of a call flow in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of an example of a networking architecture and callflow in accordance with a first alternative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a diagram of an example of a networking architecture and callflow in accordance with a second alternative embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example of a computer implemented method ofproviding a broadband telecommunication service in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example of an approach to registering aterminal in a first remote environment in accordance with one embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an example of an approach to sending profileinformation to an access agent in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an example of an approach to supportingterminal handoff in accordance with one embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an example of an approach to providing atelecommunication service to a mobile terminal in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning now to FIG. 1, a networking architecture 20 is shown. Thearchitecture 20 utilizes a broadband network 22 to delivertelecommunication services to one or more small office/home office(SOHO) environments 24. While some embodiments will be discussed withregard to video conferencing, it should be noted that the embodiments ofthe invention are not so limited. In fact, the telecommunicationservices may be either network centric or provide specific, and caninclude but are not limited to voice applications, data applications,video applications, multimedia applications or any combination thereof.Notwithstanding, there are a number of aspects of video conferencing forwhich the systems and methods discussed herein are uniquely suited.

Generally, the architecture 20 includes one or more broadband accessagents (BAA's) 28, one or more network access service platforms (NASP's)26, one or more Internet protocol (IP) digital subscriber line (DSL)switches 21, and one or more routing devices 23. As will be discussed ingreater detail below, an NASP is a network centric service element thatprovides interworking functions between one or more network accessentities located in environments 24, a content services provider (notshown) and the broadband network 22 to facilitate services andapplications. Thus, each NASP has the capability of providingsubscribers with the ability to access the services.

It will be appreciated that the interaction procedures that locate anddeliver services, as well as the methodologies that allow theintroduction of advanced services in a distributed intelligent mannerare given a particular focus on mobility management. Specifically,subscribers can customize their telecommunication needs, such as serviceand feature selections, maintenance of personal address books anddirectories, profiles and databases and service preferences byprogramming the NASP 26 at their convenience. The NASP assists thesubscriber in accessing the telecommunication services via the broadbandnetwork 22 and replaces the traditional dial tone and telephone key padwith technologies such as speech coding, interactive voice, voicerecognition, and text-to-speech processing. When the user wishes torequest a telecommunication service, the user merely picks up a phone,turns on a laptop/personal computer (PC) or initiates the NASPapplication. As a result, the user can interact with the NASPinstantaneously/directly via one of the premise-based BAA's 28 tofulfill, initiate and terminate the service requests in a multi-sessionand multi-application. The NASP, on behalf of the user, interacts withthe broadband network 22 and the BAA to deliver a network centric orprovider specific service to the mobile terminal. Each user can program,via a web-based service management dialog or through an interactivevoice session supported by the NASP/BAA, and the NASP providespersonalized services to the user on-demand. The NASP also obliteratesthe necessity of consumers programming each of their communicationdevices with their preferences (unless they so desire).

An important aspect of the architecture 20 is the ability of the mobileterminal to receive services any time, anywhere and by any mechanism(i.e., not just when the subscriber is at home). In other words,mobility management enhances the overall services to the subscriber andis important for widespread acceptance and usage. Generally, mobilitymanagement is accomplished when the mobile terminal registers with avisiting BAA (or access agent) and the subscriber's home NASP. Theaccess agent forwards the registration message to the subscriber's homeNASP. The home NASP updates the subscriber's location (i.e., based onthe assigned IP address), and routes all services including incomingcalls to the subscriber in the remote environment. Additionally, sincethe access agent knows the capabilities of the mobile terminal, it canallocate additional resources to support the terminal. As a result, thesubscriber can access all services as if the subscriber were in the homeenvironment.

FIG. 5 shows a method 30 that can be used to implement an NASP 26 (FIG.1). Specifically, it can be seen that the computer implemented method 30of providing a broadband telecommunication service over apacket-switched network involves registering a mobile terminal in afirst remote environment at processing block 32. It will be appreciatedthat the mobile terminal has a home environment and a home servicecapability. Processing block 34 illustrates that the telecommunicationservice is provided to the mobile terminal in the first remoteenvironment in accordance with the home service capability. Thus, thesubscriber is able to receive the personalized service to which he orshe is accustomed. FIG. 2 illustrates a specific mobility managementscenario at timing diagram 36 to demonstrate the benefits associatedwith the principles described herein in greater detail.

With continuing reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, suppose a subscriber “John”has a mobile terminal with video capabilities. John's mobile terminalhas a home environment 24 a and an associated home service capability.He is expecting an important business video call from overseas during atime period in which he is visiting his friend “Bill”. Bill lives infirst remote environment 24 b. When John is in Bill's house, John'sterminal is registered with Bill's BAA 28 b. Bill's default videoservice happens to be an entry-level service, such as 64 Kbps. In suchcase, with the assistance of Bill's NASP 26 b and John's NASP 26 a,Bill's BAA 28 b upgrades with additional capability or simply “turns on”additional video services to support the higher bandwidth video serviceas subscribed to by John. John's terminal provides information necessaryfor Bill's BAA 28 b to contact John's NASP 26 a. After an authenticationprocess, John's NASP 26 a acknowledges John's current whereabouts andauthorizes the transfer of calls and other services to John in Bill'senvironment 24 b. Thus, the registration process 38 provides a uniqueapproach to personalization of telecommunication services.

Turning now to FIG. 6, one approach to registering the mobile terminalin the first remote environment is shown in greater detail at processingblock 32′. Specifically, it can be seen that a registration message isreceived from an access agent of the first remote environment (BAA 28 bin the above example) at block 40. Processing block 42 provides forverifying that the registration message was initiated by the mobileterminal. Profile information associated with the mobile terminal issent to the access agent at block 44, where the profile informationincludes the home service capability. It is important to note that theprofile information may include other data such as service and futureselections, address book and directory information, profiles anddatabases and service preferences. It can also be seen that in theillustrated embodiment, location information associated with the mobileterminal is updated at block 46 based on the registration message. Oneapproach to updating the location information would be to store an IPaddress associated with the first remote environment to a computerreadable medium such as an appropriate random access memory (RAM), readonly memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory(EEPROM) or any other medium. It can further be seen that where thefirst remote environment has a default service capability, block 48provides for modifying such a capability based on the home servicecapability.

Turning now to FIG. 7, one approach to sending profile information isshown in greater detail at processing block 44′. It can generally beseen that a portion of the process may be conducted “offline” withregard to the registration process. Specifically, the processinformation is stored at block 50 in accordance with either a web-basedservice management dialog or an interactive voice session. Theillustrated embodiment uses the example of a web-based service dialog atblock 52, but the interactive voice session, using commerciallyavailable speech synthesis/recognition techniques may also be conducted.In any event, the profile information is retrieved at block 54 and maybe sent to the access agent via the remote NASP at block 56.

Returning now to FIGS. 1 and 2, the scenario depicted in timing diagram36 will be continued. When John's NASP 26 a receives the call, John'sNASP 26 a routes the call to Bill's BAA 26 b, where John is currentlylocated. Once John completes the call, John's NASP 26 a can generate acall detailed record (CDR) and send the CDR to a call-connection agent(CCA) 56. The CDR enables John to use Bill's BAA 28 b with enhancedfunctionalities as if John were at home and all the servicesoriginated/received by John are charged to his account located at hisNASP 26 a. Thus, the call receiving process 58 provides a uniqueapproach to the delivery of telecommunication services.

It can be seen that after John finishes with his call and deregistersfrom Bill's BAA 28 b, Bill's BAA 28 b informs John's NASP 26 b that Johnwill no longer be reachable in the first remote environment 24 b. Asillustrated in the deregistration process 60, John's NASP 26 a updatesJohn's current location information by using the contact informationprogrammed/customized by John from the profile database for all futurecontacts and services.

FIG. 9 illustrates one approach to providing service in accordance withthe home service capability in greater detail at processing block 34′.It will be appreciated that depending upon the circumstances, either aprovider specific service can be provided at blocks 62 or a networkcentric service, may be provided at blocks 64. In network centricservices, the NASP intelligence resides out on the network, whereas theNASP intelligence of a provider specific service typically resides in aprovider “black box”. It should also be noted that a wide variety ofwell documented broadband applications such as video conferencing,multimedia and online shopping can be provided to the mobile terminal.

Terminal Handoff

It will be appreciated that there may be instances in which the mobileterminal must be registered in another remote environment while thetelecommunication service is being provided to the mobile terminal. Itwill be further be appreciated that the air interface protocolsavailable to the respective environments may be the same or different.FIG. 3 illustrates the architecture 20′ wherein the handoff betweenenvironment 24 b and environment 24 c is based on the same air interfaceprotocol, such as IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN). It canbe seen that at arrow (or step) 66, a subscriber with a terminalsupporting the IEEE 802.11 air interface protocol moves to environment24 c that supports the same air interface protocol, while the call is inprogress. The terminal finds a better radio frequency (RF) signal fromenvironment 24 c (i.e., the neighboring service area), and registerswith BAA 28 c (the access agent). At step 68, BAA 28 c forwards a mobileIP registration request to BAA 28 b. Upon receiving the mobile IPregistration request from BAA 28 c, BAA 28 b consults NASP 26 b todetermine whether the service is authorized at step 70. NASP 26 b maycontact NASP 26 a in approving the service. BAA 28 b replies to therequest from BAA 28 c, and subsequently intercepts and forwards themedia packets destined to the terminal to BAA 28 c at step 72. BAA 28 cdelivers the packets to the terminal in environment 24 c. Thus, theterminal can continue the ongoing session without disruption.

FIG. 4 shows an architecture 20″ wherein the subscriber travels betweenservice areas having different air interface protocols, such as IEEE802.11 and 3G WCDMA, provided that the terminal is equipped with thoseradio devices. The major difference from the above scenario is that agateway general packet radio services (GPRS) support node (GGSN) 74replaces BAA 28 c as the access agent. Specifically, at step 76 thesubscriber moves from environment 24 b, which supports IEEE 802.11 airinterface to environment 24 c′, which supports 3G air interface, whilethe call is in progress. The terminal suffers a weakening 802.11 RFsignal and activates its WCDMA air interface. The terminal finds WCDMAservice, and registers with its network. The GGSN 74, as an accessagent, forwards a mobile IP registration request to BAA 28 b at step 78.Upon receiving the request from GGSN 74, BAA 28 b consults NASP 26 b todetermine whether service is allowed at step 80 to determine whetherthis is allowed. As already discussed, NASP 26 b may contact NASP 26 aduring the verification process. As illustrated at step 82, BAA 26 bforwards the media packets destined for the mobile terminal to GGSN 74.GGSN 74 delivers the packets to the mobile terminal in environment 24c′. Thus, the mobile terminal can continue the ongoing session withoutdisruption.

FIG. 8 therefore illustrates the above-described handoff scenario atmethod 30′. It can be seen that in addition to registering and providingservice in the first remote environment, processing block 84 providesfor registering the terminal in a second remote environment during thecall. The telecommunication service is provided to the mobile terminalin the second remote environment in accordance with the home servicecapability at block 86.

The systems and methods discussed above constitute a significantimprovement with regard to providing enhanced end-to-end packettelephony and traditional telecommunication services with distributedend-to-end packet network environments. Since the transport methodologyis irrelevant to the overall NASP and mobility management serviceconcepts, the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) with cell-basedtransport, frame relay network and IP based transport methodology fromthe environments are also applicable. The above methods and systems areapplicable to current and future residential, SOHO, local and enterprisesubscribers. They integrate residential and business services, andbroadband networks to provide mobility for end-to-endpacket/cell/frame-based services.

Those skilled in the art can now appreciate from the foregoingdescription that the broad teachings of the embodiments of the presentinvention can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, while theembodiments have been described in connection with particular examplesthereof, the true scope of the invention should not be so limited sinceother modifications will become apparent to the skilled practitionerupon a study of the drawings, specification, and following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of providing a telecommunication serviceto a mobile terminal over a network, comprising: registering, via aprocessor associated with a first remote environment, the mobileterminal in the first remote environment having a default servicecapability, wherein the mobile terminal is associated with a homeenvironment with a home service capability, wherein the first remoteenvironment is different from and is remotely located from the homeenvironment; receiving, via the processor, profile informationassociated with the mobile terminal, the profile information includingthe home service capability for enabling the first remote environment toprovide the telecommunication service to the mobile terminal in thefirst remote environment in accordance with the home service capability;and providing, via the processor, the home service capability for thetelecommunication service to the mobile terminal in the first remoteenvironment, wherein the home service capability comprises a videoservice having a higher bandwidth as compared to a bandwidth of adefault video service of the default service capability, wherein thetelecommunication service is provided over a wireless interface.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the network is a packet switched network. 3.The method of claim 1, further including registering the mobile terminalin a second remote environment while the telecommunication service isbeing provided to the mobile terminal.
 4. The method of claim 3, furtherincluding: registering the mobile terminal in the first remoteenvironment in accordance with an air interface protocol; andregistering the mobile terminal in the second environment in accordancewith the air interface protocol.
 5. The method of claim 3, furtherincluding: registering the mobile terminal in the first remoteenvironment in accordance with a first air interface protocol; andregistering the mobile terminal in the second remote environment inaccordance with a second air interface protocol.
 6. The method of claim1, further including providing a network centric service to the mobileterminal.
 7. The method of claim 1, further including providing aprovider specific service to the mobile terminal.
 8. The method of claim1, further including providing a video conferencing service to themobile terminal.
 9. The method of claim 1, further including providing amultimedia service to the mobile terminal.
 10. The method of claim 1,further including upgrading from the default service capability to thehome service capability.
 11. A method of registering a mobile terminalin a remote environment, comprising: receiving, via a processorassociated with a home environment, a registration message from anaccess agent of the remote environment, wherein the mobile terminal isassociated with the home environment with a home service capability,wherein the remote environment is different from and is remotely locatedfrom the home environment; verifying, via the processor, that theregistration message was initiated by the mobile terminal; and sending,via the processor, profile information associated with the mobileterminal to the access agent, the profile information including the homeservice capability for enabling the access agent to provide atelecommunication service to the mobile terminal in the remoteenvironment in accordance with the home service capability, wherein thehome service capability comprises a video service having a higherbandwidth as compared to a bandwidth of a default video service of thedefault service capability, wherein the telecommunication service isprovided to the mobile terminal by the access agent over a wirelessinterface in the remote environment.
 12. The method of claim 11, furtherincluding updating location information associated with the mobileterminal based on the registration message.
 13. The method of claim 12,further including storing an internet protocol address associated withthe remote environment in a memory.
 14. The method of claim 11, furtherincluding: storing the profile information in a memory; and retrievingthe profile information in response to the registration message.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, further including storing the profile information inaccordance with a web-based service management dialogue with a user. 16.The method of claim 14, further including storing the profileinformation in accordance with an interactive voice session with a user.17. A method of providing a broadband telecommunication service to amobile terminal, comprising: receiving, via a processor associated witha home environment, a registration message from an access agent of aremote environment, wherein the mobile terminal is associated with thehome environment with a home service capability, wherein the remoteenvironment is different from and is remotely located from the homeenvironment; verifying, via the processor, that the registration messagewas initiated by the mobile terminal; updating, via the processor,location information associated with the mobile terminal based on theregistration message; and sending, via the processor, profileinformation associated with the mobile terminal to the access agent, theprofile information including the home service capability for enablingthe access agent to provide the broadband telecommunication service tothe mobile terminal in the remote environment in accordance with thehome service capability, wherein the home service capability comprises avideo service having a higher bandwidth as compared to a bandwidth of adefault video service of the default service capability, wherein thebroadband telecommunication service is provided to the mobile terminalby the access agent over a wireless interface in the remote environment.18. The method of claim 17, further including enabling the access agentto provide a video conferencing service to the mobile terminal.
 19. Themethod of claim 17, further including enabling the access agent toprovide a multimedia service to the mobile terminal.